Attorney faces criminal charges for courthouse fracas

By
Jameson Cook, The Macomb Daily

Monday, July 15, 2013

A woman who is a lawyer, therapist and educational consultant faces felony charges, accused of assaulting a half-dozen Macomb County sheriff’s deputies last fall in the county courthouse as part of a acrimonious custody dispute with her ex-husband.

Cynthia “Cindi” Lardner, 53, of Troy, faces a Sept. 4 pretrial in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens on one count of assault on a police officer causing injury, five counts of assaulting a police officer and/or resisting arrest and one count of disturbing the peace.

Lardner, formerly of Sterling Heights, is accused of assaulting the courthouse deputies during an Oct. 10 hearing for her custody case with a Friend of the Court referee.

The most serious charge, assault causing injury, is punishable by up to four years in prison while the five additional resisting/assault counts are punishable by up to two years in prison.

Lardner was arraigned Monday in circuit court and had a plea of not guilty entered for her through her attorney, Elias Muawad. She is free on a $5,000 personal bond.

She was previously referred for forensic psychological evaluation and was determined able to assist in her defense. The second prong of the mental evaluation -- whether she knew her actions could have been criminal -- has not been completed.

Lardner’s custody case last year continued after the day of her arrest. In a December decision by Friend of the Court Referee Amanda Kole, Lardner lost custody of her now 14-year-old daughter, one of three children she has with her ex-husband, Michael Lardner. Another daughter, 17, resides with her, and a 15-year-old son resides with his father along with the 14-year-old daughter, court documents say.

At a hearing regarding her financial matters one week before her arrest, Lardner was evasive and combative with Judge Kathryn George, who questioned about her finances, according to a transcript of the hearing. Lardner told the judge she had approved “accommodations” for her to sit in court instead of stand. After testy exchanges between the two, George told her: “You are behaving in a very contemptuous manner.”

“I am not being contemptuous,” Lardner replied.

“Well, Ms. Lardner, I’m telling you, you are,” George said. “And so I would expect that you would be respectful in this courtroom, OK?”

Psychologist Larry Friedberg, who interviewed her, reported what Lardner told her about the arrest, “Ms. Lardner reported that her PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) was deliberately triggered (by opposing counsel and sheriff’s deputies) and that her rights as a person with PTSD and accommodations granted by the court were violated.”

Lardner, who says she has a master’s degree in counseling from Wayne State University, specializes in gifted children as an educational consultant. She is a member of Suppporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted, and a past member of the National Association of Gifted Children, according to her LinkedIn profile. She has taught at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, Walsh College, and Macomb Community College, according to the Institute of Continuing Legal Education’s web site.

Court records show she and Michael Lardner married in 1994 in Grosse Pointe Farms, and Michael Lardner filed for divorce in 2002. A personal protection order sought in 2004 by Cynthia Lardner against her ex-husband was denied by a judge.